


A Moment's Repose

by Umbreonix



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Pre-Calamity, Revali is still learning how to be a good bf, and he's got a few walls, but Link comes in like a wrecking ball, but it's very new, reaffirmation of feelings, they're so in love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-15 09:15:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29433738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Umbreonix/pseuds/Umbreonix
Summary: The champions make camp after a demoralizingly difficult day's travel.Link follows Revali as he goes off on his own and convinces him to take a rest.They end up using this time away from the group to finally explore their budding romantic relationship.
Relationships: Link/Revali (Legend of Zelda)
Comments: 22
Kudos: 104
Collections: Revalink Valentine's Exchange 2021





	A Moment's Repose

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Cinnabunni](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cinnabunni/gifts).



> Happy Valentine's day Cinnabunni! <3

It had been a long, grueling day's travel.

Hyrule Field isn’t safe anymore for everyday passage, they had to hack and slash their way through hordes of bokoblins and lizalfos to make their way across. While they have now made it through the worst of it and are out the other end, a grim silence still enshrouds them. It does not escape any of their notice that the monsters are growing in number by the day, but no one dares make this observation out loud.

Link’s armour sits heavily on his body, but he hides his weariness with a well-worn stoic expression. He is dirty. Entire strands of his hair had fallen out of its ponytail throughout the day’s events and now cling uncomfortably to the back of his neck. The perspiration on his brow he worked up in the successive fights has dried, but his face feels stiff and gritty from the sand and dirt it caught and cemented onto his skin.

The others dragging their feet along look equally haggard, eyes dim with fatigue.

There’s only one person who still appears immaculate.

Revali swoops down and lands amongst them. The small gale his wings disperse pelts them with loose pebbles and roadside debris and no one seems too amused by the unnecessary theatrics.

The rito preens a feather in his wing, an imaginary imperfection, before he drooly informs them all that he has found an appropriate rest spot up ahead in the Crenel Hills.

With an end now finally in sight, morale seems to raise just a little.

Revali doesn’t return to the air, instead choosing to guide them by foot.

He stands at the front of the pack, back straight, arms crossed behind himself. Polished. Kempt.

 _Annoying,_ would have been the next word in Link’s mind only a few months ago, followed by _smug_ , followed by a few words his good upbringing has never let him utter out loud.

Now however, the evening sun has a special glare and it illuminates Revali’s feathers, bringing out their undertones of blue and the only word ringing through Link’s head is _beautiful._

When they reach the location, Link is immediately impressed.

Revali has led them to a massive hollowed-out tree stump. It opens only at the entrance and encircles the grassy clearing inside with 20-foot walls of thick impenetrable wood. It would be easy to secure the perimeter. They’d likely only need one person keeping watch at a time from the entrance, meaning each of them would actually be able to get a decent night’s rest for once.

There is another one of those strange shrines in the center which delights Zelda. Link cares a little less. Until they have some sort of purpose, they mean nothing to him. The stern and ridged codes he has lived by since he was young have sapped that brand of enthusiasm and sentimentality from him.

However, right on that previous thought, he catches Revali dusting off the princess’ shoulder and making some smug but affectionate comment about her current state of hygiene, _quite unbecoming of her high stature_. There is something about his voice now that never fails to leave something warm and silly in Link’s stomach… and he realizes that maybe there is something boyish and passionate still left within himself after all.

He acknowledges that he had been wrong about one thing, perhaps he is wrong about another? He tries to look back at the shrine and see if maybe there is something about it that speaks to him, that intrigues him the way it does Zelda. A call for adventure perhaps? A marvel for the mysterious and unexplained?

Nope. Maybe in another life, or, perhaps if things had been different. Right now, he’d trade everything to spend the rest of his days in peace and complacency.

He can at least concede the dim orange glow might be comforting for sleeping though. It wasn’t too bright that it would keep them awake but the light would help in seeing any advancing enemies.

The champions disperse without a word to begin setting up the camp, knowing the quicker the task is done, the sooner they can all finally collapse.

Only Link and Revali remain at the entrance.

Link notices the rito side-eying him smugly. Waiting.

“Nice job,” Link says and Revali’s feathers puffs proudly.

“Hmph, I’d say it’s a little better than just ‘nice’. You all would be hopeless without me,” He tries to sound unmoved by Link’s praise but hints of satisfaction leak through into his honey-flavoured voice.

It is ridiculous how low maintenance the rito actually is given how difficult he likes to make himself seem. It makes Link wonder once again what all the posturing is even for. He seems hell-bent on hiding all of his most endearing traits and it’s both baffling and intriguing how the most lovably pretentious and self-conceited person he has ever met seems to sell himself so short.

There is a spring to his taloned step as he moves to help Urbosa lay out the bedrolls and Link allows himself only a moment of watching him go before he quickly joins in on the chores as well, relieving Mipha of fire duty before she can even finish stacking the wood.

He had noticed earlier how unhealthily dry her skin was looking. It is taxing on a zora’s body to be away from the domain for such a long time. He knows it is impossible to ever get her to consider putting her own needs first, but he can at least do what he can to keep her a distance away from the dry air and smoke of the flames.

She gratefully wanders off to inspect Daruk’s wound from earlier. Later he would have to convince her to go take a dip in the river. Perhaps in the morning he might suggest they go fishing for the group’s breakfast. A ‘two fish with one spear’ situation as the old zora proverb goes.

When everything is in place, everyone finally relaxes. Link steps off to the side to remove his armour piece by piece with no finesse, dropping the clunky equipment to the ground below tiredly. His arms feel like logs and his hands are almost too stiff and clumsy to deal with the buckles that hold the heavy metal to himself but as the clasps are finally undone and the pieces fall off, the following weightlessness and the fresh air permeating through his shirt make it worth it. His tunic is still wet in the places that were hugged by the leather straps and the way it unsticks from his clammy skin as he rustles the fabric feels heavenly.

There is a commotion over where the others have gathered by the fire and Link glances back passively.

“I have graciously been pulling everyone else’s dead weight along all day- I have much more important things to do with my time I assure you!” Of course, that was Revali.

Link only caught the tail end of whatever that was about this time, but honestly, already knew it didn’t matter. This is a performance the rito puts on every single night with similar gusto and it always ends the exact same way: Revali launches himself back in the sky and flies away and out of sight.

The champions loudly protest as his after-wind beats at the fire and threatens to put it out.

When the flame remains ignited after a few perilous moments, they un-tense.

“And there he goes,” Daruk says, scratching the back of his head.

Link doesn’t miss the small flickers of envy he sees in each of his companions’ eyes as they continue to stare up at the open sky that the rito had fled into.

He used to watch in the exact same way.

The world now sometimes feels like it’s falling apart into something unrepairable and times of reprieve are lessening by the day. The idea of being able to fly away from all the chaos, panic and responsibility at any moment is nothing but an escapist’s fantasy for most.

If you didn’t know where he is going, you might make the mistake of thinking he is blessed.

They finally remove their gazes from the heavens above and return to the drab earth they are all confined to, finding solace in the flickering flames and false sense of safety of the campfire.

“He’s young,” Urbosa comments, “But not quite young enough to excuse his behaviour, he needs to learn to control his temper. Regardless, he’ll cool off and return back soon. He won’t want to miss dinner.”

Link honestly feels a little indignant on Revali’s behalf. He resents the implications that Revali is just off somewhere sitting on his tail feathers and moping, even if that is what the rito chooses to have them all believe for some stupid reason.

The champions continue on to other topics rather fast. The princess is settled between Urbosa and Mipha, eagerly telling them about her research back at the castle and the headway her and the royal scientist Purah are making on the strange bell-shaped machines they excavated.

She notices Link looking and goes well out of her way to never look in his direction again, even when it involves angling her head weirdly each time she turns to Mipha. The message is clear, she doesn’t want him there.

Well, she never does, but his job forces him to ignore those wishes, even if the end result is a series of verbal barrages. Today however, he is more than happy to abide.

She is sitting in an enclosed space with three of the most accomplished warriors in all of Hyrule and he doesn’t doubt her safety in the slightest. Not to mention, there is somewhere else he very much wishes to be.

He had carefully noted the direction Revali went and is itching to follow.

When no one is watching, he slips away.

The rito hadn’t gone far.

Links has to climb over quite a few outcroppings of rock and exposed ancient tree roots but eventually comes upon a clearing.

Well… clearing was maybe not the proper term, or at least, it probably hadn’t been a clearing only half an hour prior.

There are dozens of birches but the area still looks quite wide-open and exposed given they are no longer much more than branchless, leafless vertical logs, victims to fierce winds that Link knows couldn’t have been natural.

Yes, Revali’s impromptu training grounds are always quite easy to spot from a distance.

Revali himself is in the center, ducked low on the ground in quiet concentration.

Link finds a spot where the rito likely won’t notice him and settles in to watch. Even with the… developments to their relationship, he doubts Revali would ever willingly let him witness this.

Revali summons wind and throws himself towards the clouds in a never-before seen flight pattern.

He spins out however right before the precipice of his upwards arc and crashes painfully into some spikey looking shrubs.

Now, unlike earlier, his feathers are messed. One of his braids has fallen undone somewhere in his practice.

Here is the truth beneath Revali’s shining exterior. Behind every seemingly effortless maneuver he literally pulls out of thin air on the battlefield, he has failed it a thousand times before. While every champion has a special gift, Revali’s wasn’t divinely bestowed by birthright but rather, was something he brought along himself, developed and honed entirely from his own efforts. Never fully satisfied, he continues even now to push it to new limits. Link has watched him break those wings he’s so proud of multiple times only to chug a part of a potion and go at it again.

It’s… disturbing.

He’ll admit, watching these sessions was what had him finally come around on the rito. He was first attracted to his willpower and dedication before anything else.

But now that same drive that used to tug at his heart in unfamiliar ways is completely breaking it.

The bramble bush Revali hurled into snags at his tail as he impatiently rips himself out of it. A few of his gorgeous blue feathers stay behind, plucked off and mangled unattractively in the thorns.

Revali lands painfully on his wing next and Link winces. He experimentally moves the mussed-up arm, finding whatever damage not bad enough to need treatment. There is only a single potion sitting over with his belongings and unless he reaches the point of not being able to move something, Link knows he won’t drink it until his session is done. His poor wing… it was the same one that only a week ago cradled Link inside its crook with more care and delicacy than he had ever received throughout the entirety of his remembered life.

He hadn’t felt that safe and secure since early childhood, long before he ever pulled the Master Sword.

Link wants nothing more than to intervene, but he refrains. He doesn’t like Revali’s drastic measures, but he understands the time crunch. The urgency that pushes the rito to try and reach new heights each night is not lost on him.

The final straw however is when Revali is thrust out of his wind once again and violently thumps on a rocky patch of ground. He clutches at his head painfully; he must have hit it.

Link sprints from his hiding spot and straight to the rito’s side.

“Revali, are you okay?” He asks, his experience the only thing masking his panic.

Revali is dazed and can only look at the knight dumbly. “Link?” He says.

He tries to stand but dizziness overtakes him and he falls back down. “What are you doing h-“ he starts to ask, voice lethargic, but Link interrupts him.

“Follow my finger,” He orders. The rito follows the movements with his eyes obediently for two travels before he is snapped back to reality. “No!” He angles himself away disagreeably and shrugs Link’s supportive hand from off of his shoulder. “I do not appreciate you meddling in my affairs! I don’t remember giving you permission to follow. Begone immediately.”

“You hit your head,” Link says soothingly. Revali’s temper is bubbling up and that requires quite a bit of delicacy. He is above all else, prideful, and he is, no doubt, incredibly embarrassed for what he now knows Link has seen. “You need to take it easy, head injuries are bad.”

“It’s fine, it’s possible to fight with half a brain, you do it every day,” Revali snaps dismissively. “I feel fine, if you were sent out to look for me, tell them I’ll be back soon, I’m not finished here.”

“You are,” Link said firmly. “Revali, take the potion, you’re done.”

There is a dangerous anger in his eye now as he glares Link down. “How long _exactly_ have you been watching my practices?”

Had this been the first time, Link wouldn’t have known how Revali tends to wrap them up.

“Pretty much since we all started travelling together…” Link admits.

Revali’s mortification is flaring up to something that will be explosive if Link doesn’t defuse it fast.

“Hey,” he soothes and lets a hand run down Revali’s injured wing. Its exploratory path stops on one of Revali’s finger-like wingtips and his own fingers wrap around it in the closest imitation the pair can get to handholding. “You look really cool when you’re working hard.”

Revali doesn’t tear his wing away, which is a good sign, but he mutters under his breath. “You probably just like laughing at my failures. Must be hilarious watching me being thrown around from my own gale like a rag doll.”

“You’ve never looked more manly,” Link says, pulling out a twig that got lodged into a gap in his armour.

Revali looks doubtful at the statement but calms a little regardless.

“Take the potion,” Link repeats.

Revali nods and tries to stand but his leg buckles and Link realizes he hit more than just his head. He places a comforting hand on Revali’s knee (and is secretly surprised at the softness of his brown feathers, he’ll need to explore those further later) before getting up and retrieving the bottle for him.

Revali obediently drinks it whole.

“You’ve been worrying me recently,” Link admits.

The scowl Revali fixes with him is surprisingly relieving, his agreeableness had been making Link think he might actually have dislodged something. It hadn’t been like him at all.

“You didn’t use to wait for things to get this bad before you healed yourself.”

It was only recently that Revali began to stubbornly reject using potions during his practice. He used to drink them like water.

“Why are you treating yourself this way?” Link asks.

Revali looks away but finally admits, “You,” with a voice more raw and sincere than Link is used to hearing from him.

“Me?” Link asks, taken aback.

“Last week… you almost died… and after some contemplation… I suppose it would have been on me for using up so many of the potions in my practices.”

“It’s fine,” Link says, “I was being especially reckless because I knew I had a fairy on standby.”

“It would have been nice to have been clued into that earlier,” Revali says briskly. “I wouldn’t have raised such a fuss.”

“It was nice,” Link says reminiscing for the thousandth time the feeling of the desperate wings that gripped and clasped at whatever part of Link they could reach outside his armour, trying anything and everything to keep his eyes open. “I hadn’t known you cared until then. I certainly hadn’t expected that confession, were you ever going to tell me you loved me if that didn’t happen?”

Revali cringes in displeasure. Sometimes it feels like since the moment after he let that slip out, he was and is continuing to do everything in his power to pretend it never happened. Luckily, Link won’t allow for that. Not when he knows their feelings are mutual.

“I was very much ready to take that ignominious factoid to the grave, thank you very much,” Revali scoffs but then he sighs deeply. “A hylian of all things, it’s an unsightly stain upon my reputation.”

Hmm. He knows the rito can’t help but say things like that when he’s flustered but it still doesn’t feel good.

“Do you regret it then?” Link asks. He hadn’t dared ask that until now because honestly, there is a possible answer he strongly does not wish to hear. He rubs his thumb along the downy softness of Revali’s finger, hoping it might do its part in coaxing out a more favourable and honest response. If not, it helps distract himself from the nervousness and keep up at least the _semblance_ of nonchalance. (despite his heart feeling like it’s in his throat)

Revali’s stiff posture slackens, “No,” he admits. “I don’t.”

The smile that crosses Link’s face is soft and impossibly rare. He raises onto his knees to brush his lips across Revali’s forehead, directly above the junction of where his beak meets his flesh and where his feathers are thinned out and shortest. He can feel the faint body heat of Revali’s skin underneath them and knows he must therefore feel the kiss as well. Being a rito, he doesn’t have lips of his own, but he reciprocates by pressing forward lightly into Link’s touch.

Link doesn’t part from the kiss when he murmurs, “Now let’s get you tidied up.” His lips tussle the feathers of Revali’s face with each syllable.

It’s Revali who pulls away. Maybe as some final attempt at being confrontational, he crossly mutters “You better not have told anyone about these practices.”

“Never,” Link swears.

Revali nods in a way that suggests he probably already knew that much. Link barely talks with the group, let alone gossips.

He settles, readjusting himself comfortably and begins inspecting himself over. He is a mess and this is likely the first time he’s noticing it. He stares distastefully at a cluster of burs that got lodged deeply under the feathers of his right wing.

He picks one out with his wing tips but finds the bur now stuck to the one that approximates his pointer finger instead. He shakes his wing angrily in attempts to dislodge it and when that doesn’t work, nips it off with his beak.

The rest of the hooked seeds are too sheltered by his longer flight feathers for his thick and blunt fingers to get at.

Link crawls forward. “Let me.”

Revali’s intense green eyes stare at him for a moment pensively but he finally agrees, extending his wing out in invitation.

Link is in a much better position to pluck them out, they don’t come easy but soon his wing is unburdened and Link takes just a few extra minutes to smooth and primp the fussed-up feathers.

The wing that had been suspended for Link’s easy access now settles down on his shoulder tentatively.

Revali is pointedly looking away but Link shuffles forward, manually wrapping the wing around him. “Any time you feel like it. I don’t have to be dying for you to hold me,” Link says.

Revali’s metal breastplate is still equipped, and it makes it difficult to find a comfortable position, but Link finally hooks his chin over Revali’s shoulder and nuzzles his nose into his neck and it works. Maybe someday they’ll be together under circumstances where there won’t be the constant need for armour.

He envisions a lazy day (something neither of them have likely ever indulged in) perhaps on a hammock somewhere not too warm and not too cold where he can lay against Revali’s soft and exposed feathery body for hours with no fear of attack.

“How long are we supposed to do this?” Revali asks, interrupting the moment.

He will have to first train that ability to sit still into him over time it seems… The rito’s heart is in the right place, but he isn’t a cuddler… _yet._

Link laughs quietly at his lover’s bluntness. “For as long as you’d like,” he says, but pulls away knowing his patience was up this round.

There is some more dirt he brushes off his bluebird and he notices another clump of burs matted into Revali’s outer thigh.

He meticulously picks at those as well.

They really are soft, the feathers on his legs are more pliable like down and can easily be rubbed in any direction and fall back into place without getting messed up. It is like touching a feathery sheep.

He is almost disappointed when he gets everything out. He lets his hand sink in one last time, watching his fingers almost disappear into the deceptively thick fluff.

“What are you doing?” Revali asks briskly.

“Nothing,” Link says, abruptly pulling away, feeling like he got caught doing something he shouldn’t have.

“I hear hylians have a more attuned sense of touch since they are featherless,” Revali says. “We use those particular feathers quite frequently in snowquill armour because they seem to like the feeling. I suppose if you find it especially pleasant, I will permit you to touch them again. Although please be mindful of the time and place.”

Link gratefully gives his thigh another squeeze. When he lets go there is the slight imprint of a hand. It is bouncing back by the second, but something about seeing his mark there for even only a moment is deeply satisfying.

He moves around to behind the rito.

Now for his hair.

He reaches for the loosened locks but is surprised when a wing quickly blocks him.

“What’s wrong,” he asks. “They’re falling out.”

“You haven’t said it back yet,” Revali says.

“Said what?” Link asks, entirely baffled. “Um, sure if you want to touch my thighs too you can?” he adds “They’re not really soft though.”

“Not that,” Revali mummers.

Link sits back on his ankles in confusion. Revali is still covering his hair with his wing.

“I don’t understand,” Link admits.

Revali turns himself around to face Link again. “Touching each other’s hair is a fiercely intimate act between rito, You can’t- I can’t permit you to touch it if you don’t…”

Link realizes what he’s getting at all at once.

“I love you too.”

Revali feathers fluff and his eyes crinkle.

“Well,” he says as he begins to unravel his braids. “We don’t have time to sit here all night as you try to figure out how to do my braids to an acceptable standard but… so the sentiment gets across…”

Revali takes Link’s hand and gently pulls him forward until his nose is inches from Revali’s beak then he guides his touch to rest over his loose hair.

It is a similar kind of soft to his thighs, less like hylian hair than Link had expected and much more light, bouncy, and feather-like. It is how he imagines touching a cloud would feel, especially closer to the scalp where he is delighted to find an insulating layer of downy after-feather.

Revali closes his eyes calmly and lets Link explore. His head falls closer and closer absentmindedly until the length of his beak lies along the bridge of Link’s nose.

After a few moments, Link releases his own hair and encourages Revali to touch as well.

Revali runs a few blond strands through his wing tips reverently and slides his head up to rake the tip of his beak across Link’s scalp. He hadn’t expected the slight scratch to feel so good.

“It’s dusk,” Revali says suddenly, breath warm against his left ear. “We need to get moving.”

Wait what?

Revali pulls away far sooner than Link would have liked again from the tender moment and quickly twists his hair back up into its four braids, swift with daily practice.

There’s still some light when they wander back.

There are a number of similar towering stumps in the area but the camp is, as Link had predicted, easy to spot with the light of the shrine as well as the fire of a lantern just outside the semi-enclosed area.

It ends up being Daruk who is sitting watch outside the entrance.

“Oh good you both made it, and right on time,” the boisterous leader of the gorons says before succumbing to a massive yawn.

Revali peeks into the camp. “They’re asleep already?”

“Yeah, everyone was really conked out. I’m pretty tired too. It’s about time to trade watch shifts and Zelda said to have one of you guys go next when you get here, something about circithym rhythms getting messed up otherwise or something like that? I don’t really get it but she’s the boss!”

“I’ll do it,” Revali says.

“Great,” Daruk grins and hands them both meats skewers served over large leaves, “here’s your dinners, we were surprised, it’s not like the little guy here to miss out on a meal.”

“I suppose there’s something out there the numbskull actually loves more than food,” Revali says much too proudly.

Daruk snorts. “Maybe, I doubt it though.”

He heads in without further small talk, clearly as exhausted as he had claimed. (His backslaps on the way past only do have the damage they usually do)

Link is tired too, but his hunger is much stronger than he’d realized until he smelled the meat. It’s cold now and a little less juicy than it might have been earlier (depending on who cooked. Urbosa always overcooks things and it is her greatest, in Link’s opinion, personal flaw) but it satiates the pangs well enough.

Stomach full, he plops his head down to rest on one of his many new favourite things, the brown feathers of Revali’s thigh, a stellar down pillow.

The rito jumps. “If you’re tired, you have a perfectly good bedroll inside.”

Link decides this is one of those times it’s best to just go back to being silent.

“Fine,” He scoffs, “But if trouble comes, I won’t wait until you wake up to spring to action, you’ll be eating dirt.”

Link nods a little into the soft feathers, consenting to the risks. “Wake me when it’s my turn,” he murmurs. 

“You are becoming quite spoiled remarkably fast” Revali comments. “What are you going to do in a week when it’s just you and Zelda again?”

Link… doesn’t want to think about that. “You could just stay with us.”

“As if,” Revali immediately shuts down the offer. “My duties as rito champion are the full extent of my obligations to the hylian royal family. I have my own people to return to and a divine beast to attend. I have too much to do to also take on your own job for you.”

“Just an idle thought,” Link says, having a hard time taking anything to heart from someone allowing him to use them as a headrest.

There is silence for a bit and Link assumes Revali is letting him sleep but then a wing slowly falls over him and covers him warmly . “You know… you should try talking to her a bit more and drop the whole ‘silent protector’ schtick,” the rito comments “I can say from experience that it’s quite easy to keep using you as a personal punching bag when you never react.”

A few fingers begin to run through Link’s loose hair, he had never pulled it back up. “You’re actually quite difficult to hate once one gets to know you, believe me I _tried_.”

Link shuffles until he is facing up at Revali. “I’ll try to be a little more open with her.”

“Good,” Revali says. “and if she still doesn’t like you after that, she has a lot of nerve not appreciating the lover of the great rito champion. If you’re good enough for me you’re good enough for anyone.”

He pauses at that thought “And you are…”

“Hmm?” Link asks lethargically, he’s listening but he can also feel sleep coming on and is doing his best to fight it off in favour of this moment.

“Good enough. You are good enough for me,” He admits. “I may have said some… unpleasant things earlier that I hadn’t meant so I suppose I should… _apologize._ ” Link is sure if Revali had teeth, he’d be talking through them- especially with that last bit, it had sounded almost pained. He always got the sense Revali wasn’t one for apologies.

“I know, it’s fine,” Link assures him. “If you really feel bad, you could always try saying some _pleasant_ things to tip the scales though.”

The rito looks at him for just long enough without saying anything that he begins to think he won’t be humoured.

“you have an amazing taste in romantic partners,” Revali praises finally and even though this was about as much as Link had been expecting, he still finds it hard not to laugh at least a little.

He will be fine if Revali decides to stop there but the rito himself seems discontent with his own efforts.

“I-“ He starts to say, “I receive your affections with pride.”

That was actually a bit better. It was still focused on Revali himself but there was some sweet sentiment in the center.

This last bit the rito seems to struggle with saying the most. “It would be… a mistake to say the only thing remarkable about you as a knight is that sword you so often wear on your back. A mistake I know I have made before. The sword picked you because you are a phenomenal knight. You’ve proved that repeatedly.”

Well that was something he hadn’t expected.

“Don’t be too flattered,” Revali scoffs while noticing the slight hint of an impressed expression from the hylian. “I need to save some face here. It’s an insult onto myself for my partner to not be at least on par with my greatness. I’m quite picky you know. I can’t have anyone, even yourself, believing untruths about my lover.”

Goddess he was in love with this adorable bird.

“Goodnight Revali,” Link says, shaking his head a little in amusement. He turns over and nuzzles his cheek against the soft down. Almost immediately he is lulled back into a near-sleep from the day’s wear and the unique but soothing musk of Revali’s feathers.

The hand that isn’t part of his warm plumy blanket returns once again to administering gentle soothing stokes down the back of Link’s head.

The movements falter.

“She better not fall in love with you,” Revali says suddenly.

It’s so insane an idea to Link that he at first wonders if he isn’t half-dreaming but he answers anyway: “You’re all I need.”

He can almost hear Revali roll his eyes with his following tone: “Well yes, I know _that_. Why would your eye ever stray? It’s literally impossible to do any better than myself! But if she gets any… ideas we’ll be needing to exchange words,” his voice is growing more and more bitter as he deludes himself into thinking this is something that he now is certain will come to pass.

The idea is ludicrous of course. In the knight’s opinion, he’s clearly accrediting Link with having more charm than he actually possesses.

“Don’t worry,” Link yawns. “When the time comes, I’ll just tell her the truth.”

“Hmm?” Revali says, “and what exactly is that?”

Link is fading fast. Despite being half on the hard dirt, he can’t imagine anywhere more comfortable and he’s practically nodding off when he says. “What you said… that my heart belongs to the great rito champion-“ another miniature yawn, “-and next to him… everyone looks like a moblin.”

That last bit gets mixed in with nonsensical sleep-talk but the point is there and the last thing Link feels is Revali’s wingtips returning to stroking his hair.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> AND THEN THEY LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER, I DON’T CARE HOW.  
> Somehow this is in the world of a Champions survive AU whether it be AOC shenanigans (golly I still have to play that), a situation where the champions don’t die and are only captive in their divine beasts, or resurrection stuff.  
> Idk but they deserve to be happy. The author has spoken.
> 
> This was based off Cinnabunni's prompt "Established relationship where one tries to get the other to take a break and relax for once, and just enjoy each other's company"
> 
> Bonus fluff: Revali is always quick to help with the bedrolls chore because he likes to make sure his and Link's sleeping accommodations are close. He'll pretend it isn't intentional but it is, and Link knows.
> 
> This was really fun! I haven't gotten to this point in their relationship in any of my fics, it was so refreshing to be able to drop the slow burn and write some fluff for once XD


End file.
